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Indigo noted the direction of Beth’s stare and shaded her eyes, surveying the little group gathered near the truck.
“Is that Finn?” she asked.
Beth tore her gaze away and reached for Indigo’s arm. “Yep,” she said, turning around and starting back toward the Rose, urging Indigo along with her. “I just remembered I promised to buy him a beer in return for help with Evan.”
“Hey,” Indigo protested. “What’s the hurry?”
“Oh, I have to…uh…get something really quick.”
“What?”
But Beth’s heart was beating way too hard and a prickling heat was sweeping over her skin. She knew what that meant—oh she did. She’d felt it with Troy in the first few months of their relationship.
He’d been her high school boyfriend, a calm, steadying kind of guy, and their relationship had felt like a safe haven after her somewhat emotionally chaotic upbringing.
At least until she’d gotten pregnant, lost the baby, and fallen into a pit of depression.
Until he’d decided that wasn’t something he’d signed on for and left.
But no, she wasn’t going to think about him or the baby she’d lost or the depression.
Fun, that’s what she wanted. Fun and happy. Because she’d never had that, not even with Troy. Steady and safe had been great back then, but she was different now. She was brave and fearless now, and safe and steady seemed a little boring to her.
Not that dark and brooding and intense was any better. Or this prickling, feverish heat that seemed to build inside her every time Finn Kelly looked at her.
You probably should stay away from him in that case.
Yes, she should. But that wasn’t an option, not in a town as small as Brightwater Valley. And she couldn’t anyway, not after she’d promised Izzy she’d get at least one of Evan’s paintings for the gallery, not after she’d promised Finn a beer.
No, she was going to have to figure out how to live with him, and that would probably involve completely ignoring the attraction flaring between them.
At least until it had died down, which it would, of course, since that’s what had happened with Troy. It would definitely happen with Finn too, no question.
All she had to do was wait it out.
In the meantime, she’d buy him a beer and ask him about Evan. Tonight even. Treat him like the friend she wanted him to be and not like the lover her body wished he were.
“Oh,” Indigo said. “I’m sure there’s no connection between Finn and you suddenly needing to…uh…get something.”
“No, of course there isn’t,” Beth said as she dragged Indigo up the front steps and into the Rose. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
***
Finn sat at his chosen table in the corner of the crowded pub in the Rose, glowering at the four people standing at the bar.
Correction. He was glowering atoneperson.
And it wasn’t Chase, Levi, or Izzy.
It was the woman standing next to Levi and talking animatedly to the other three. She wore a simple, white cotton sundress that left her shoulders bare, and her pale, cotton candy hair had been piled on the top of her head in a messy bun. Tendrils fell down around her face, ears, and the back of her neck, making it look like someone had buried their fingers in all that softness and pulled at it just a little.
You’d like to pull at it just a little.
Finn growled under his breath and forced himself to look away. No, he would not like to do that. She was out of bounds, no matter how pretty and desirable she looked in her white dress, all pale skin, soft and sexy with a hint of innocence.
Radiant, that’s what she was.
Shining like the moon in the darkness.
